This is, for 1906, a strikingly ambitious prototype-documentary travelogue filmed in and around the cities now called Kolkata and Mumbai. It's full of precious, occasionally startling images, from an extended 'phantom ride' down busy Calcutta streets to thronging port life, street trading, even the cremation of a human body and the ritual decapitation of lambs on a Bombay street – a scene some viewers may find upsetting. This is a French production but, like many of the 'exotic' travel films so popular in early cinema, it travelled widely itself – hence this version, with English language intertitles.
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Camille Legrand Director · Maurice Hache Director
First release March 3, 1906 · Original title La Vie aux Indes
Production
Pathé Frères
Production
Languages
Original title
La Vie aux Indes
Original language
French
Spoken on screen
No dialogue
Release dates
France · March 3, 1906
Theatrical
No release date listed for United States.
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